Shawn Ward - Sunny Places EP [Musica Dentro]

Percussive bounces and delicious post-funk licks abound on Shawn Ward’s “Sunny Places” EP, originally released on DiY Discs in 2005 and now reissued by Musica Dentro. By then, the Canadian producer had already become a favorite of the British label, successor to Strictly 4 Groovers, whose direct sensibility allowed them to release music with Atjazz, Essa, and Digs & Woosh, all early pioneers of a distinctive broken funk style. “Digital Bug” and “Sunny Side” are just two of the four total cuts here, showing us how far 8-bit house music can go to convey optimism without explicitly saying so. Through garage house and proto-funk, Ward predicts a kind of purple escapism in sound, prototyping the very video-game sensibility that would later be evoked on labels like Night Slugs.